Step One

How did we get started?

We looked at our bank statement and realized we spent almost $1000.00 eating out. A thousand dollars for us two and, at the time, a 15 month old baby, and we spent $500.00 on groceries, which we throw most of it way because we didn't eat at home. We started to cook more at home and put as much as we could in savings.

Initially, our plan was to take 3 months to save. We figured to save 1000.00 in 3 months we needed to put away, 333.33 a month. That number looked huge to us, so we broke it down per paycheck and we decided to save $85.00 a check. We got paid 4 times a month between the both of us. As soon as the direct deposit hit, we transferred 85.00 to savings. What helped us save faster was not eating out and I got a bonus check from work and we put 200.00 away from that.

We have not moved on to Baby Step Two, because we are expecting a baby. Felicia and I decided that we should probably save enough to help cover expenses because again she would not be paid during maternity leave. We increased our paycheck saving to 100.00 and at the end of one month, we had 400.00 left over and moved 200.00 over to savings. I was wondering if we were doing the right thing by delaying Step 2, but Dave Ramsey told a caller the other day that he should put off Step 2 and throw anything extra into savings until momma and the baby were home safely. When we decided to do it that way, it seemed to be common sense and I was glad to hear it made sense to Dave. I am not going to lie and say it was easy. Our plan was start going to the the grocery store on Sundays for our weekly shopping. We missed one Sunday and for that whole week we were eating out and wasting money. We paid a stupid tax on that one. One lazy Sunday caused us to go over budget by 200.00. Once we started eating out, it was let's buy this and that. None of it were huge purchases but none the less we have nothing to show for what we spent.

Our goal is to spend 100.00 week on groceries and the first few times it worked out to be 150.00 a week, but this last time, we spend 96.35 and later today we have to buy milk for the baby. That may put us over a 100.00, but the groceries are lasting 2 weeks this time. I am not sure if we can do that every week, but it would be nice to be able to.